By Jackie Deal
Amber (my cat) is playing with one of her stuffed mousies in the corner. Isn’t that cute? She’s acting like it’s a real mouse. That’s so cu-uUUUT !! A 2 ½ inch dark brown mouse streaked across the floor and jumped onto my foot. For one second I debated: did I want squashed mouse guts all over my rug? YES! I stomped but too late. Mouse scampered into the corner and Amber hurtled after it. It squirreled away behind some immovable furniture and Amber lost that round.
She hasn’t given up. Every day she goes on mouse patrol. Around the perimeter of the room, sniffing into the furnace vent, trying to pry open the kitchen cupboards. Once a mouse, always a mouse, right?
What could I do to help? Poison might catch Amber instead of the mouse. And those old fashioned snap traps could snap on her pretty little ballerina paws. Then my neighbor gave me the neatest mouse trap. It’s a blue plastic cylinder. In one end you put cheese and the other end is a little trap door which snaps shut behind the mouse when it enters.
So far no mouse. The trap is ready and so is Amber. I really think she’s scared it away for good and I can just imagine it saying to its family and friends, “Stay away from there. There’s a big black panther living there!”
At our first official educational event, Herbalist Amber Merrifield enlightened us with information about the growing and use of herbs. In a former life, Amber worked in veterinary medicine giving anesthesia, animal critical care, pharmacology and biomedical treatment. 
